To link or not to link

As Web Services Librarian for the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library, I receive frequent requests for us to place links to other organizations on our site. In order to have some consistency in deciding whether or not to link to external sites, a policy was developed by my colleagues and I, and submitted to the University’s legal department for approval. Our “Web Mission, Vision and Policies” page is now up and available for reading.

Some time ago, the University Libraries purchased a subscription to Campus Guides by Springshare. This service allows our libraries to organize content (such as links to external sites) in a way that makes it easier to find. It has an easy-to-use interface, provides for regular checking for broken links, and includes “Web 2.0″ features like tagging. This tool is a perfect way to post links to external sites that meet our linking policy criteria.